Memorial Day: Serviceman’s WWII death is among York County stories behind the stars

Jim McClure

When Chester F. Marshall graduated from York High in 1918, he readily accepted a job in great demand that spring.

There was a war on — World War I, in fact — and the military was looking for many good men. He had gone through training and embarked on a ship to Europe when the Nov. 11, 1918, armistice ended the Great War.

The fighting had stopped, but work awaited him there as part of an occupying force.

In 1922, he returned to the states and gained employment in the foundry with York Ice Co., later York Corp. and today’s Johnson Controls.

But a second war beckoned — this one on two fronts — in Europe and in the Pacific.

Chester F. Marshall, who worked at York Corp.’s Grantley foundry, was killed aboard the S.S. Paul Hamilton Liberty Ship while sailing to the warfront in World War I. He also served in World War I. He was the son of William D. Marshall and Mabel M. Marshall and had two brothers, John and Edward.

About two months after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor brought America into the war, the 41-year-old Marshall enlisted in the Army Air Forces and trained in aircraft engine maintenance on a heavy bomber line, Consolidated B-24 Liberators. By early April 1944, two months before the D-Day invasion, he and his 485th Bombardment Group comrades were bound for Italy aboard the Liberty Ship S.S. Paul Hamilton.

In the Mediterranean, near Algiers, a swarm of 23 German Junkers torpedo bombers attacked his convoy.

One of the aerial torpedoes found his ship and ignited munitions aboard. The ship exploded and sank in 30 seconds. Marshall and 579 others died from the blast.

Only one body among the fallen was recovered.

More:Perhaps the last (from York County) in (World) War (II) ...

Memorial Day honors

The story of Chester Marshall and his heroism — the type of sacrifice celebrated on Memorial Day — is remarkable because it was so common. Here was a fighting man who volunteered for military service twice, the second time in his 40s.

His job was not glorious — he was part of the ground team that prepared heavy bombers to fly — but his sacrifice in the line of duty was selfless.

He paid the ultimate price and is listed among at least 570 York County residents to die in World War II. And among scores who died at sea.

It makes sense to honor here a sampling of other fighting men who died on the water.

In an early York County death only months after Pearl Harbor, seaman Paul A. Sowers died while at sea in the South Pacific.

In a pattern that would be repeated many times in the war, the Springettsbury Township man was first reported missing to his family. Then there was a newspaper report with that news. Later, the family learned that he died.

His 16-year-old brother, Luther B. Sowers, who would become an educator and civic leader in York County, would long remember him.

A German torpedo bomber destroyed the S.S. Paul Hamilton Liberty Ship in World War II, taking the lives of all aboard including 41 Pennsylvania natives. York County’s Chester F. Marshall was one of those killed. This photo comes from Stories Behind the Stars, a nonprofit organization dedicated to honoring the 421,000 fallen Americans from World War II. To volunteer or to get more information about the organization, contact Kathy Harmon, kharmon@storiesbehindthestars.org, or visit storiesbehindthestars.org.

About that time, Lt. Thomas Frutiger of Red Lion, a York Corporation. engineer, was taken prisoner in the Philippines and then survived the Bataan Death March. He was detained in Japanese prison camps for much of the war and then died in late 1944 from friendly fire. Japanese forces were transporting him on what became known as “hell ships” to the Japanese mainland ahead of Allied forces moving on the Philippines. Many York countians know his son, Robert Frutiger, former mayor of Red Lion.

More:New details about the first man from York County to die in World War II

Rabbi Alexander D. Goode died aboard the Dorchester, a converted cruise ship, as it carried troops in the North Atlantic in February 1943. Lt. Goode was among the four military chaplains who gave up their life jackets and seats on lifeboats so that others would live. The Dorchester went down in about 20 minutes after it was struck by a German submarine-launched torpedo. The Four Chaplains have been remembered by the Four Chaplains Memorial in York County and elsewhere in America.

In perhaps the last York County mortality of the war, Yeoman 3rd Class Jack T. Yeaple died aboard the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis or in the aftermath of the attack. The ship was moving on to its next assignment in late July 1945 in the South Pacific after dropping off elements of the atomic bomb that would later fall on Hiroshima.

A Japanese torpedo struck the ship in the open sea, and it went down in 12 minutes, so quickly that it couldn't send out an SOS. About 300 men died in the strike, and another 600 succumbed to exposure and shark attacks in the five days they struggled for survival until help arrived. The remaining 300 were rescued after the Navy finally discovered that a major ship had gone down.

The S.S. Paul Hamilton Liberty Ship explodes in the Mediterranean Sea in 1944 and goes down in 30 seconds, killing all 580 passengers and crew. This picture was taken from another ship in the convoy.

Stories Behind the Stars

Nonprofit Stories Behind the Stars is dedicated to honoring these men in uniform and 421,000 fallen Americans from World War II.

The organization brought forth Chester Marshall’s story as a way of further making his heroism known.

I included a short biography and story about Marshall in my 2005 book about World War II, “In the Thick of the Fight.” His name appears on a memorial plaque on the façade of the York County Administrative Center. He is also remembered by the Veterans Memorial Gold Star Healing & Peace Garden.

But his contributions can be overlooked, particularly because no flag honors him in a local cemetery. Many others from York County, who died in uniform, also are similarly remembered on memorials in foreign lands.

For example, York Corp.’s Robert Zercher’s bomber was shot down over Holland. He survived the attack and gained refuge in the Dutch resistance. The Germans discovered him, executed him and publicly displayed his body with a sign saying “terrorist.”

He is remembered in a monument in Apeldoorn in Holland. No family members have been found locally to remember this hero.

After airman Kenneth Slenker’s plane went down in the sea near Holland, his name was posted on a monument at Margraten American War Cemetery in that land. This memorial was unknown to his brother, Charles Slenker, then-mayor of West York, until 2011, years after it was erected.

Marshall, who posthumously received a Purple Heart, is remembered on the Tablets of the Missing in the North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial in Carthage, Tunisia.

This flag at York Corporation's plant shows that 24 Gold-Star employees lost their lives in World War II through V-E Day, May 1945. That total included Chester F. Marshall. At that point, 1,148 employees had served in the military, later adjusted to 1,200. Thomas Frutiger’s death in the Philippines became known in the summer of 1945, raising the loss of life among York Corporation’s ranks at 25.

More:Photos: York, Pa., in World War II & the York Plan that helped win it

One company, big loss

The Hamilton’s losses, which included 41 Pennsylvanians, represented the worst suffered by a Liberty Ship in World War II. The mass-produced Liberty Ships served as cargo vessels and troop transport ships.

Marshall’s sacrifice also casts a spotlight on the contributions from those serving from just one private company in York County.

About 1,200 men and women from York Corporation, maker of refrigeration and cooling for many military uses, served in uniform. That was about 25% of its workforce.

Twenty-five of those who served, including Chester F. Marshall, gave their lives and many more were wounded.

This prompted the company newsletter to say in its November-December 1945 edition: “May We So Live That These Honored Dead Shall Not Have Died in Vain.”

Sources: “Stories Behind the Stars,” storiesbehindthestars.org; James McClure’s “In the Thick of the Fight, York County, Pa. Counters the Axis Threat in WWII”; YDR files

This is a German Junker torpedo bomber similar to the 23 planes that attacked the S.S. Paul Hamilton and the rest of its convoy in the Mediterranean in 1944.

Upcoming presentations

James McClure will present to an OLLI at Penn State class about “York’s Box Hill Mansion: If These Walls Could Talk” from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 21. Details: olli.psu.edu/york.

Jim McClure is a retired editor of the York Daily Record and has authored or co-authored nine books on York County history. Reach him at jimmcclure21@outlook.com.